1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a staple and a stapler for the staple and, more particularly, to a soft staple made of material such as paper and the like, and a stapler suitable for use with the soft staple.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, to bind documents and the like, a thin metal staple having a straight main body and legs bent substantially at the right angles at both sides of the main body is used, and an exclusive stapler for providing the metal staple is widely used.
As this staple is made of metal, when the bound documents became no longer needed and are desired to be recycled, it is necessary to remove the staple before letting the documents to recycle processing. When the bound documents are cut with a shredder to protect the secret, the staple has to be removed before the cutting is performed, for the staple damages the cutting edges of the shredder. Further, if the removed staple is left on the floor, it can be an unexpected dangerous article.
In view of these points, the applicant of the present application has earnestly proceeded with the research, and has developed a staple made of material such as paper and the like.
However, in case of the staple made of material such as paper and the like, it may be possible to give the staple with strength to some degree subject to strengthening process, but would be insufficient to keep the bound documents only by the tip ends of the bent legs of the staple. Thus, it is necessary to provide an idea of coating inner surfaces of the staple legs with an adhesive, which are in contact with the back surface of the bound documents. In this connection, use of a so-called hot-melt type of adhesive is usable, but would have to be heated via paper material of the substrate for the staple. Thus, it is necessary to provide an idea how to fuse the adhesive quickly and sufficiently. Further, it should be considered that even if the strength to some degree can be given to the soft staple, it is impossible to penetrate documents to be bound with the staple itself of paper material unlike a metal staple.
Accordingly, the stapler using the staple of paper material requires consideration to how to make the best use of a selected type of adhesive to be used, and to how to bind documents reliably.
The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and has an object to provide a staple made of a paper material using a hot-melt type adhesive which is capable of fusing quickly when heat is added, and a suitable stapler for the use with the paper staple.
In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a staple having a gain body extending flat and straight, and legs bent substantially at right angles at both ends of the main body and opposed to each other, wherein the substrate of the staple is made of paper material, a hot-melt type adhesive being coated on opposing inner surfaces of the legs, and a plurality of through-holes being formed in each of the legs in an area coated with the adhesive. The paper material constituting the substrate of the staple includes a vulcanized fiber. The present invention also provides a stapler having a staple magazine for storing staples therein which has a bottom wall, both side walls provided upright along both side edges in a longitudinal direction of the bottom wall to oppose each other, and an end wall vertically provided on at least a front end in the longitudinal direction of the bottom wall, and in which an opening for allowing the staple to pass through is formed in the bottom wall at a position close to the front end wall, the staple magazine including biasing means for biasing the staples toward the front end of the bottom wall. The stapler further comprises an upper lever which is pivotally connected at its rear end to a rear end of the staple magazine, and has a pressing member for pressing the staple located above the opening in the bottom wall of the staple magazine to force the staple out of the opening. The stapler further comprises a base which includes a base plate placed under the staple magazine and connected to the staple magazine, and a matrix anvil placed on the base plate at a position corresponding to the opening of the staple magazine for receiving legs of the staple pressed out of the opening and guiding the legs to be bent in predetermind directions. The upper lever is provided with cutters mounted on the pressing member and extending downward along both side surfaces of the pressing member beyond the lower end of the pressing member and having cutting edges at lower ends thereof. The stapler further comprises heating means for heating the matrix anvil, and a document lifting spring located between the staple magazine and the matrix anvil, fixed at its one end to the base plate and including a resilient document support in which an opening for allowing the cutters to extend through is formed.